Finnish Game Developer Traplight Closes a 1.3 Million Euro Funding Round

Traplight Secures Further Investments to Launch Its Upcoming Debut Title and to Continue to Build its Games Portfolio Based on Player Creativity

Tampere, Finland – December 2nd, 2015 – Mobile game developer Traplight, a studio focused on user-generated content (UGC) games, today announced that its second funding round has led to an additional €1.3 million of funding, bringing a total investment of €2 million to the start-up studio. The investments gathered from new and previous investors will enable Traplight to publish and further develop their upcoming puzzle-racer as well as to focus on their new game projects based around community creativity.

Led by tech investor Initial Capital, the second round of funding also included previous investors Sunstone Capital and Finnvera Venture Capital, as well as angel investor Kenrick Drijkoningen and former investor Henric Suuronen. Traplight has also received continuous support from Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, and is currently part of its Young Innovative Company funding programme. The lead investor Initial Capital has an impressive portfolio of investments in several early stage game companies, including hit companies such as Supercell and Glu Mobile.

"We are really excited to be investing in Traplight”, said Shukri Shammas, Founder & Partner of Initial Capital. “We believe the team's talent, experience and innovative approach to user-generated content will allow them to differentiate in the increasingly crowded mobile gaming space.”

“The team at Traplight impressed me with their relentless focus on quality and user experience,” said angel investor Kenrick Drijkoningen, former Nonstop Games and King user acquisition and digital marketing expert. ”I believe there is a massive target market for this game and the players will respond well to the casual gameplay and amazing art.”

“We are thrilled to get further game industry talent and expertise on board at Traplight” said Riku Rakkola, CEO of Traplight. “The funding will help us finalize our debut title which is scheduled to launch in 2016, and it provides us the opportunity to concentrate on new game projects.”

About Traplight Traplight, based in Tampere, Finland is a mobile game studio of 14 people established in 2010. Currently developing their debut title, the company aims to revolutionize the way players – and the game industry – conceive and experience user-generated content. The company has collaborated with big game companies such as Redlynx/Ubisoft and Supercell. The core team Riku Rakkola, Jari Paananen, Sami Kalliokoski and Seppo Santapukki share years of experience in game development.
http://www.traplightgames.com
https://www.facebook.com/TraplightGames
https://twitter.com/TraplightGames

About Initial Capital
Initial Capital is an investor in seed and early-stage technology companies with a focus on games, consumer services and technology enablers. Initial Capital is based out of London and Silicon Valley, and has played a key part in growing companies like Glu Mobile ($350M IPO in 2007), Playfish ($400M sale to EA in 2009) and Supercell (Finland-based global leader in iOS-based games).
http://www.initialcapital.com/

About Finnvera Venture Capital
Finnvera Venture Capital is specializing in early stage investments in Finland with over $170M assets under management. Investments are made in technology enterprises at an early stage and in technology-intensive or innovative service enterprises that have potential for developing into international growth enterprises.
https://www.finnvera.fi/eng/Venture-Capital

About Sunstone Capital
Sunstone Capital is a leading European venture capital company with a track record of being the first investor in the newest crop of great Nordic game companies, including Seriously, Everywear Games, Futureplay and Ministry of Games.
http://sunstone.eu/

About Henric Suuronen
Henric Suuronen is a mobile games entrepreneur and angel investor. His previous startup Nonstop Games was acquired by King Digital Entertainment in August 2014. Before Nonstop Games Henric was Head of Studio at Wooga in Berlin and Director at Digital Chocolate, first in Helsinki and later in their studio in Barcelona. Henric is an active angel investor and his games investments include Grand Cru, Ministry of Games, PlayRaven and the leading mobile games analytics company Omniata.

About Kenrick Drijkoningen
Kenrick Drijkoningen is a user acquisition and digital marketing professional currently leading the performance team at HomeAway Asia. His previous employers include Rocket Internet and game companies Nonstop Games and King. Based in Singapore, Kenrick has managed multi-million dollar ad spend in online retail, travel and mobile gaming across Asia, US and Europe. Kenrick recently started investing in startups and Traplight is his second major gaming investment.

Original story